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Athletic officials: APR may be flawed
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by Yewon Kang
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Several University of Wisconsin athletic officials have affirmed there are a variety of reasons the new Academic Progress Rate may be flawed. The APR was issued last February by the National Collegiate Athletic Association to measure student-athlete academic success.
APR ratings are given to each UW sport and are based on the academic eligibility, retention and graduation of the student-athletes. If a sport continues to receive low APR scores, students could potentially lose their scholarships or the team could be excluded from certain NCAA tournaments. Football, basketball and baseball are sports that often score below the rate of 925, which is equivalent to an approximate graduation rate of 50 percent.
However, UW Athletic Department officials caution that many factors can influence the APR scores.
The graduation rate, mainly compiled by the Department of Education, “is not very accurate because even when athletes with good performance transfer to another institution, they are recorded as a failure in their previous college,” Associate Athletic Director of Communications Steve Malchow said.
He added football might especially be skewed this time of year because of tryout periods for the upcoming NFL draft, which makes it difficult for some athletes to maintain good academic performance.
Malchow said in 15 years, only two UW basketball players and two football players left school after their junior years to play their sport professionally.
However, Director of UW Academic Services David Harris said that the number of athletes who go to the pros before graduating does not necessarily correlate to low APRs.
“It depends on what kind of sports, and when the athletes leave, because football players who leave after junior years, as long as they are eligible, do not get penalties [for APR],” Harris said.
NCAA President Myles Brand said in a statement APR scores serve as a tool to give institutions and teams a warning regarding the academic performance of their players.
“The goal of the academic reform package is to reinforce good behavior,” Brand said.
He added that the new reforms are “tough but fair.”
According to the NCAA APR report, approximately 50 percent of all Division I institutions have at least one team that falls below the cut-off score and could lose at least one scholarship in 2005-06.
The 2003-04 APR data were sent to every Division I president and chancellor in February for review. The reports provide each institution with its overall rate, as well as APRs for each NCAA championship sport the school sponsors.
However, the current reports are only for informational purposes, according to Malchow, and penalties will not be implemented based on the 2003-04 APR data until the 2005-06 academic year, when two years of APR data will be available.
